Tobias Hobson (died 1630) was the first man in England that let out hackney horses. When a man came for a horse he was led into the stable, where there was a great choice, but he obliged him to take the horse which stood next to the stable-door; so that every customer was alike well served according to his chance,from whence it became a proverb when what ought to be your election was forced upon you, to say, Hobsons choice.Spectator, No. 509.

Where to elect there is but one,T is Hobsons choice,take that or none.

Lord Coleridge remarked that Maule told him what he said in the black beetle matter: Creswell, who had been his pupil was on the other side in a case where he was counsel, and was very lofty in his manner. Maule appealed to the court: My lords, we are vertebrate animals, we are mammalia! My learned friends manner would he intolerable in Almighty God to a black beetle. (Repeated to a member of the legal profession in the United States.)